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Foamers Unite!

Hello, I’m back. We took a sabbatical of sorts, Tony jetting around the place, working and gambling and loving and scheming and succeeding, and I sort of lost myself in a post-operation-continual- rehabilitation-dislocation-relocation mental breakdown sort of way. With the growth of this “Holes in the Foam” monster, the time has come to write once more, or at least attempt to.

Tony & I on sabbatical. You know it’s true Tony.

The Catholic Church has provided us with plenty of material to work with. Their flying monkeys, “Our fathers who art in denial”, now have the spotlight on them, and are fast learning this concept called “accountability”. The Fuehrer Ratzinger has had to resign over the cover up of abuses, or because he was too old, or because one night Jesus crept into his room and told him to move over. You can believe what you want.

But what is great now is there seems to be this concept of accountability hitting a lot of institutions who before seemed untouchable. Call me idealist, or delusional, but look at what’s happened. We have a reigning resigning pope, or P.O.P.E. (eh…would Person Organising Paedophiles Eternally suit?), BP in court for that big oil spill, the education union leader in Mexico jailed for diverting funds to her plastic surgery account, and the Irish government apologising for the torturous Magdalene laundries, to name but a few.

Poor kids…

What has caught my attention in particular is the resignation of the head of the Catholic Church in Scotland. Born in Antrim, in Northern Ireland, Cardinal O’ Brien had to leave his position after some priests came forward revealing “inappropriate” advances from a man voted “Bigot of the year” in 2012. What a turnaround. I imagine him plying young men of the collar with holy wine, “Careless whisper” playing in the background, or Sade, as his advances were thwarted (or not). What a confusing existence he must have led.

Confirmed bullshitters

It has been revealed that he had a close relationship with the late Jimmy Saville. Jimmy Saville has been revealed to be one of the biggest paedophiles in the history of paedophilia. Operating under the protection of his ties to the Royal family, for decades he abused and raped little girls and boys in the UK. The Cardinal and Jimmy must have had a lot to talk about. Like the Church, the BBC had tried in vain to cover up the sordid details of their employees’ misadventures, but happily for us all, the truth eventually has come out. Trust is being lost in the big institutions; people seem to be thinking more and more for themselves.

The paedophile Jimmy Saville

I hope I’m not being naive. But how else can you explain the drop in numbers in churchgoers, or people who affiliate themselves with a religious belief, or even the surge in popularity for sites like our own? There seems to be a rejection of old ideas, moves towards a freer and more informed population. One day perhaps we’ll reach a point whereby our collective consciousness topples all of the old guards that up to now haven’t worked.

I live in Mexico, where the president is a puppet on a string, like in most countries. But again there is a movement here of disaffected youths, #YoSoy132, who only last Sunday organised a teleconference with Julian Assange still cooped up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The interconnectivity available on the internet is uniting the annoyed, the pissed off, the innovators; the tired, fed up, and mad dreamers. We are learning how to form groups, to protest, to work around the system that has so long been holding us back.

Well, why not…dream

So the trick is to stay ahead of the powerful, and eventually usurp them. We are many, we are legion, and we are growing. Of that there is no doubt. Remember that. Developing ourselves first, later releasing ourselves from the matrix, then finding each other, sharing ideas, discussing and arguing; these are things that affect and encourage change. It’s not easy, and it’s simple to get discouraged. Unlike the controlling entities I don’t have to be closed, I don’t have to reject something just because it goes against my own ideas. I can learn better, always improving.

I don’t mean to sound like some crazed life coach. I’m talking for myself. Writing on here is both a therapy for me and a way to share my thoughts. But all of what happens in your life is up to you. That’s for sure. I go through bouts of depression like lots of people; maybe everyone. When I get out of the blackness it’s down to me, in the end. I’m getting through all of this with the idea of the possibility of some better world. Here’s hoping.

New dawn?

I think it’s also important to point out the atrocities continuing in many parts of the world. Uganda, Bangladesh, Libya, Israel, Mexico, Iraq, Pakistan, India, the US…eh…actually, I think it’s easier just to say we have some work to do. Even the Maldives has shown itself to be hundreds of years behind with this case where a 15 year old got raped, had her child murdered, and is facing the lashings of the Islamic court. I am sickened and inspired. We collectively groan and wonder what to do.

Anyway, for now I will leave you again with words from George Carlin, who put across the message a lot better than I probably ever could…

George

“…but I’ll tell you what they don’t want. They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago.

“You know what they want? Obedient workers people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork but just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And, now, they’re coming for your Social Security. They want your fucking retirement money. They want it back, so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it all, sooner or later, because they own this fucking place. It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it. You and I are not in the big club.”